Putin Meets Pope Frances S.J.

From the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/the-pope/10474191/Vladimir-Putin-holds-first-meeting-with-Pope-Francis.html



Pope Francis and Russian president Vladimir Putin met on Monday and discussed the Middle East and problems faced by Christians across the world, but did not touch on the strained relationship between the Vatican and the Orthodox Church.

The 35-minute meeting at the Vatican was the first between Pope Francis and Putin, who met the pontiff's two immediate predecessors, Benedict and John Paul II.

"It was quite a cordial and constructive meeting," Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters after the encounter. Putin had arrived around 45 minutes late because of transport problems.

Relations between the Catholic Church and Russia have long been uneasy because of accusations that the Vatican has tried to poach believers from the Orthodox Church, a charge it denies.

Putin brought a greeting to the pope from Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, but did not talk about inter-church matters, Lombardi said. There was also no discussion of a possible visit to Russia by Pope Francis.

Pope Francis S.J. Letter to Putin

http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/09/05/pope_francis_writes_letter_to_president_putin_of_russia_ahead_of_g20/en1-725816

Pope Francis writes letter to President Putin of Russia ahead of G20 summit

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has written a letter to President Vladimir Putin of Russia as he prepares to host this year's G20 summit in St. Petersburg. Listen to Lydia O'Kane's report

Below is the full text of the Pope's letter to President Putin.

To His Excellency
Mr Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation


"In the course of this year, you have the honour and the responsibility of presiding over the Group of the twenty largest economies in the world. I am aware that the Russian Federation has participated in this group from the moment of its inception and has always had a positive role to play in the promotion of good governance of the world’s finances, which have been deeply affected by the crisis of 2008.

In today’s highly interdependent context, a global financial framework with its own just and clear rules is required in order to achieve a more equitable and fraternal world, in which it is possible to overcome hunger, ensure decent employment and housing for all, as well as essential healthcare. Your presidency of the G20 this year has committed itself to consolidating the reform of the international financial organizations and to achieving a consensus on financial standards suited to today’s circumstances. However, the world economy will only develop if it allows a dignified way of life for all human beings, from the eldest to the unborn child, not just for citizens of the G20 member states but for every inhabitant of the earth, even those in extreme social situations or in the remotest places.
From this standpoint, it is clear that, for the world’s peoples, armed conflicts are always a deliberate negation of international harmony, and create profound divisions and deep wounds which require many years to heal. Wars are a concrete refusal to pursue the great economic and social goals that the international community has set itself, as seen, for example, in the Millennium Development Goals. Unfortunately, the many armed conflicts which continue to afflict the world today present us daily with dramatic images of misery, hunger, illness and death. Without peace, there can be no form of economic development. Violence never begets peace, the necessary condition for development. 

The meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the twenty most powerful economies, with two-thirds of the world’s population and ninety per cent of global GDP, does not have international security as its principal purpose. Nevertheless, the meeting will surely not forget the situation in the Middle East and particularly in Syria. It is regrettable that, from the very beginning of the conflict in Syria, one-sided interests have prevailed and in fact hindered the search for a solution that would have avoided the senseless massacre now unfolding. The leaders of the G20 cannot remain indifferent to the dramatic situation of the beloved Syrian people which has lasted far too long, and even risks bringing greater suffering to a region bitterly tested by strife and needful of peace. To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution. Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community. Moreover, all governments have the moral duty to do everything possible to ensure humanitarian assistance to those suffering because of the conflict, both within and beyond the country’s borders. 

Mr President, in the hope that these thoughts may be a valid spiritual contribution to your meeting, I pray for the successful outcome of the G20’s work on this occasion. I invoke an abundance of blessings upon the Summit in Saint Petersburg, upon the participants and the citizens of the member states, and upon the work and efforts of the 2013 Russian Presidency of the G20.
While requesting your prayers, I take this opportunity to assure you, Mr President, of my highest consideration."


From the Vatican, 4 September 2013

(Signed)
Francis

Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/09/05/pope_francis_writes_letter_to_president_putin_of_russia_ahead_of_g20/en1-725816
of the Vatican Radio website

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1st Orthodox Head to Visit Papal Inaugural Since Great Scism in 1054

At the papal inaugural of Pope Francis S.J.

http://www.patriarchate.org/patriarch/biography/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/pope-francis-putin-_n_4233062.html

On March 20, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew became the first worldwide spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians to attend a papal inaugural Mass since the Great Schism split western and eastern Christianity in 1054. (Editing by James Mackenzie and Mark Heinrich)

Putin Clings To Ukraine

with Ukraine Clings To Russia-
would be interesting to see a map of the votes of these parliamentarians

From the Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/ukraine/10468003/Yulia-Tymoshenko-calls-for-Ukraine-protests-as-Vladimir-Putin-blasts-Europe-over-trade-pact.html

excerpt

Vladimir Putin has accused European leaders of stoking a revolution in Ukraine as the country's jailed opposition leader called for street protests after the government scrapped a proposed partnership pact with the EU.

Mr Putin declared the "next few days" would show if Kiev would succumb to pressure to turn West or stick to ties with its former Soviet allies.

"We have heard threats from our European partners toward Ukraine, up to and including promoting the holding of mass protests," he said. "This is pressure and this is blackmail. Whether the Ukraine and the Ukrainian leadership will give in to such blackmail will be clear only in the next few days."

However Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister who languishes in jail, urged her supporters to take to the streets against her sworn rival, Viktor Yanukovich, the president. In a letter she implored Mr Yanukovich to reverse the decision to stop accession negotiations on an association agreement with Europe.

"Today, by killing the agreement, you are making the mistake of your life," she wrote. "You think you will be able to further conduct the policy of bluffing and blackmail and play between the two civilisational centres, receiving from them coveted gifts to retain power.

50 Years Ago Today: 11 22 63

An Undeniable Reason for the Vatican to Order JFK's Assassination
 http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-straw-that-broke-camels-back.html

Other 'Why's Behind the JFK Assassination
 http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-assasination-of-john-f-kennedy.html

George W. Bush- Vatican - Nationals 'W' Stadium
http://wwwfreespeechbeneathushs.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

John F. Kennedy - Vatican
 http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/2013/11/john-f-kennedy-and-vatican.html

From The New York Times

Vladimir Putin - born October 7, 1952

Editorial

Vladimir Putin Clings to the Past

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Published: November 19, 2013 76 Comments

The former republics of the Soviet Union have been sovereign, independent countries for almost 22 years, free to develop economic and political relations with any foreign nation or trading bloc they choose. That point appears to have eluded President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who is doing everything he can to prevent these countries from developing closer ties with Europe — even threatening to cut off the gas that one country needs to get through the winter.

“The Cold War should be over for everyone,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said this week. Not, it appears, for Mr. Putin. 

Next week, six former republics — Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine — are scheduled to meet with leaders of the European Union in Vilnius, Lithuania, to discuss enhanced economic, political and diplomatic ties with the union. In 2004, Lithuania, along with Estonia and Latvia, became the first former Soviet republics to join the union. 

To qualify for stronger ties, the six nations will have to demonstrate progress on democratic and judicial reforms required by the European Union. That may prove difficult for some, like Ukraine, which has, so far, refused to allow its imprisoned former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, to travel to Germany for medical treatment. 

Europe’s use of trade leverage to encourage democracy is constructive and reasonable. Russia’s attempts to bludgeon former vassals into continued economic dependence are not. The European Union offers something real and attractive. Russia, which wants them to join the customs union it has formed with Belarus and Kazakhstan, offers threats. 

In September, a Russian deputy prime minister warned Moldova that it might lose access to gas this winter should it strengthen links with Europe. Then it banned imports of Moldovan wine. Next came threats to expel tens of thousands of Moldovans working in Russia. Yet, far from backing down, Moldovan leaders have continued negotiations with Europe and are now working to reduce the country’s economic dependence on Russia. 

Moscow’s bullying has had more success in Armenia, which counts on Russian support in its territorial dispute with Azerbaijan, and has agreed to join the customs union. Even Lithuania, already a member of the union, has been subjected to trade harassment, presumably in retaliation for hosting next week’s Vilnius meeting. 

Similarly, Russia has threatened to slow Ukrainian imports with exacting customs inspections, although the main obstacles to stronger Ukrainian ties with the union involve domestic politics. In any case, Ukraine, which is economically robust, is perfectly entitled to choose its own course, as are the other former Soviet republics. 

In the waning years of the Soviet Union, its last president, Mikhail Gorbachev, talked optimistically about a post-Cold War Europe stretching undivided from the Atlantic to the Urals. Mr. Putin, however, seems to long for a return to the days when an iron curtain divided the Continent, darkening the horizons of the satellites and Soviet republics to the east — nations that now seek the enjoy more fully the fruits of independence. 

Meet The New York Times’s Editorial Board »

Merkel - Ukraine

From The New York Times

 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/world/europe/german-chancellor-makes-plea-on-behalf-of-former-soviet-republics.html?_r=0

 BERLIN — Chancellor Angela Merkel demanded on Monday that Russia allow its onetime subjects — particularly in Ukraine — to exercise the sovereign right to make alliances as they choos.

“The Cold War should be over for everyone,” Ms. Merkel said, making her first speech to the German Parliament since winning the general election in September. 

Ms. Merkel devoted the bulk of her 15-minute address to throwing Berlin’s considerable political and economic weight behind the European Union’s efforts to forge closer partnerships with six former Soviet republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. 

Those nations have been invited to sign association agreements at a two-day meeting that opens Nov. 28 in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, one of three former Soviet republics that joined the European Union in 2004.

 

 http://www.eu2013.lt/en/vilnius-summit

Ukraine, by far the biggest of the countries invited, has become the object of an East-West tug of war. European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels made clear on Monday that responsibility for Ukraine’s fate lay with its president, Viktor F. Yanukovich, an ally of Moscow who has nonetheless said he wants his country to be closer to Europe. 

Last week, though, the Ukrainian Parliament postponed consideration of a bill to allow the imprisoned former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, to leave the country for medical treatment in Germany. The European Union wants the bill to be passed before it declares that Ukraine has met the conditions for entering an enhanced partnership. Diplomats widely see Tuesday as the deadline for the Ukrainian Parliament to act. 

Ms. Merkel and the lawmakers from all parties who followed her to the lectern on Monday emphasized that the proposed agreements with former Soviet republics are “not directed against Russia” and could help Russia integrate with Europe, as the chancellor declared. 

Moldova, Europe’s poorest country, and Georgia, which recently underwent a peaceful transition of power, are sure to sign agreements at the Vilnius meeting, Ms. Merkel said. She lauded the Moldovans, in particular, for ignoring a Russian boycott of its wine exports, the country’s most important source of foreign exchange. 

Armenia, on the other hand, has succumbed to Russian pressure, including a threatened cutoff of energy supplies, and will now join a customs union led by Russia that includes Belarus and Kazakhstan, Ms. Merkel said. 

Ukraine is a cliffhanger, the chancellor said: “It is not yet clear whether Ukraine is willing to create the conditions” to sign the association agreement with the European Union, which would open up trade and other economic benefits and make travel to Western Europe easier. 

The debate over the union’s Eastern Partnership program in the German Parliament was followed by a lively discussion of the recent accusations that Germany’s most important ally, the United States, eavesdropped on millions of Germans, including the chancellor. 

Ms. Merkel, displaying barely a trace of the anger that she voiced when the monitoring of her cellphone became known, seemed intent on tamping down the hard feelings that have developed over the affair. Still, she insisted that the United States had work to do to restore the confidence needed, for example, to negotiate a free trade accord with the European Union. 

The spying accusations “are grave,” the chancellor said. “They must be cleared up. And, more important still: for the future, we must build new trust.”

In the debate, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a former foreign minister and member of the Social Democrats, with whom Ms. Merkel is now negotiating a new coalition government, said there was more to the matter than merely the discovery that the United States had spied on Germany.

“People sense that this is not a one-time oversight,” Mr. Steinmeier told the Parliament. “People sense that this is about a very basic question. This is about which moral and political guidelines do we need in this modern, digital 21st century?” 

Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, has disclosed information about the agency’s surveillance operations to various publications — in Germany, primarily to the news weekly Der Spiegel. Several prominent politicians and intellectuals on the left have demanded that Mr. Snowden, who now has temporary asylum in Russia, be given shelter in Germany and be allowed to answer questions before a full-fledged parliamentary inquiry. 

The chancellor’s conservative bloc and the Social Democrats used their combined majority on Monday to reject opposition calls for an inquiry. Still, such an inquiry could be established after Ms. Merkel is sworn in as head of a new government, which is expected to happen on Dec. 17.

Merkel Has A Valid Point

she has been criticized for daring to mention anti-Christian violence, yet comes from a background of some of the least acknowledged Christian victims - the more educated Polish and the eastern German Protestants

Population losses- during the initial 30 Years War 1618-1648

 http://www.st-benno.de/shop/angela-merkel-die-protestantin.html

The first portrait from a Christian perspective

• "The first portrait from a Christian perspective
• "Authentic, sensitive and knowledgeable
• »Interesting backgrounds, unknown details, personal images

Angela Merkel is the Chancellor and not just the most powerful women in the world, she is also a devout Protestant. Volker Resing, journalist and correspondent in Berlin, approaches the head of government in this portrait of an unfamiliar website. No Chancellor in front of her was prefigured such as theologically. Her childhood as a pastor's daughter she coined, as well as the anti-clerical environment in the GDR dictatorship. After the turn she makes an unparalleled career. The personal faith is for the Chancellor rather private matter. But she says that her services are important and how they like to sing old hymns. They examined the debate with the churches, but they do not shy away from the conflict. As Angela Merkel stands for "C" of their party? What are the churches in society care? Where she sees the Christian in politics? This portrait is authentic and surprising answers.

Casimir III+ Poland

after Casmir III ceded Silesia, and turned east

Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth

1658 proposed Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenium Commonwealth

Ruthenian Voivodship

Partitions of Poland

Casmiria

Commonwealth 1569 - 1795
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian_Commonwealth

Proposed (1658) Tri-Polish, Lithuanian, Ruthenian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian%E2%80%93Ruthenian_Commonwealth

Proposed Tri-Polish, Lithuanina, Russian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Lithuanian%E2%80%93Muscovite_Commonwealth

Pilsuski's proposal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi%C4%99dzymorze

Putin 'increasingly emotional' over Ukraine

 

Vladimir Putin born. October 7, 1952

From The New York Times

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/opinion/sunday/waiting-to-see-if-ukraine-tilts-east-or-west.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Waiting to See If Ukraine Tilts East or West

excerpt

Curiously, the ferocious tug-of-war between Russia and the European Union over Ukraine has come down to whether Yulia Tymoshenko, the former Ukrainian prime minister who is serving a seven-year prison sentence, is freed in the next few days. Today's Editorials Editorial: China’s New Agenda (November 17, 2013) Editorial: Sentenced to a Slow Death (November 17, 2013) Editorial: Reining in Payday Lenders (November 17, 2013)

 In less than two weeks, Ukraine is supposed to sign an “association agreement” with the European Union at an E.U. summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania. The agreement is far short of E.U. membership, or even candidacy for membership, but it includes a free-trade pact and promises of financial aid that Ukraine, in dire straits, desperately needs. The agreement is essentially ready, the Ukrainian Parliament has voted for it, and President Viktor Yanukovich says he is prepared to sign.

But it may not be. President Vladimir Putin of Russia is fiercely opposed to the agreement. While a large majority of Russians seems to accept the idea that Ukraine is a separate country, Mr. Putin has become increasingly emotional in asserting that Ukraine belongs with Russia, and only with Russia.

His pet international project is a Eurasian Union, which he depicts as a sort of eastern E.U. but Western critics view as an incipient Soviet reincarnation. At this fall’s annual meeting with Russia experts and journalists in Valdai, Russia, Mr. Putin spoke of Ukrainians and Russians as one people, and he has threatened Ukraine with severe consequences if it signs the agreement with the E.U. Last August, the Kremlin fired a warning shot, ordering tough customs restrictions against Ukraine and all but halting Ukrainian imports for a week. (This month, Ukraine halted Russian natural gas imports, but that seems to be more of a dispute over payments than tension over the E.U.)

On the E.U. side, East European members like Poland and Lithuania have been particularly keen to pull Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit as a further buffer against Moscow’s ambitions.

Other members farther west, like Germany and France, already suffering from pronounced “expansion fatigue” and the euro crisis, have been less enthusiastic about Ukraine, especially given its rampant corruption and cronyism. (Ukraine ranks a dismal 144th out of 176 nations and territories on the corruption perceptions index compiled by Transparency International, an organization that monitors corruption around the world.) The United States, which in the first years after the breakup of the Soviet Union ardently courted Ukraine, has basically lost interest.

---

 

Viktor F. Yanukovich

 

 

Iran-Vatican

Iran-Vatican Detente

Found via the blog Endr Times

President Hassan Rohani meeting with Archbishop Leo Boccardi

Photo (Courtesy)  http://www.mfa.gov.ir/index.aspx?siteid=3&pageid=2014&newsview=25114

 
Iran’s President Hassan Rohani has informally begun a dialogue between the Islamic and Christian worlds. He expressed hope for an alliance between Iran and the Holy See regarding major issues that shake humanity, like the fight against radicalism, injustice and poverty. Rohani’s appeal was launched on the occasion of his meeting with Archbishop Leo Boccardi, the new apostolic nuncio, on Nov. 2 in Tehran. Rohani published a photo of the meeting on his Twitter account, writing, “Islam and Christianity need to dialogue more than ever today, as the basis of conflicts between religions is mainly ignorance and the lack of mutual understanding.” Rohani remarked that the Vatican and Iran have “common enemies,” like terrorism and extremism, and “similar goals,” like the defeat of injustice and poverty in the world. Archbishop Boccardi called for “closer bilateral relations between the Holy See and the Islamic Republic,” expressing the wish that the two countries can work together to resolve regional crises in the Middle East, particularly the current one in Syria.


Source

Jesuit Superior General Adolfo Nicholas Looking Forward to 2014

Found via the blog Endr Times

http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/2013/11/jesuit-superior-general-commemorates.html

Jesuit superior general commemorates 200th anniversary of Society’s restoration

The Church of the Gesu, Rome

Photo (Courtesy) http://www.nwjesuits.org/oregon-province-trip-to-rome/

CWN - November 15, 2013

The superior general of the Society of Jesus, the Church’s largest male religious institute, has issued a letter commemorating the upcoming bicentennial of the institute’s restoration by Pope Pius VII.

Founded in 1534, the Church’s largest male religious institute was suppressed by Pope Clement XIV in 1773 under political pressure.

Father Adolfo Nicolás, the superior, proposed five themes for the 2014 bicentennial year: “creative fidelity,” “love for our Institute,” “fraternal companionship,” “universal mission,” and “faith in Providence.”


Source

Putin Strongly Desires Encounter with Pope Francis While Russian Orthodox Patriarchate to Visit the Vatican

Found via the blog Endr Times

 Vladimir Putin b. Oct. 7, 1952

http://endrtimes.blogspot.com/2013/11/putin-goes-to-pope-on-agenda-war-in.html



http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Putin-goes-to-the-Pope:-On-the-agenda,-the-war-in-Syria-and-Middle-East%E2%80%99s-Christians-29492.html

11/08/2013 12:56
RUSSIA - VATICAN

by Nina Achmatova

The Russian president "strongly" desired encounter with Francis, which will be held on the afternoon of November 25. Ahead of the leader of the Kremlin, Metropolitan Hilarion , number 2 of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate, will visit the Vatican .

Moscow (AsiaNews) - The Kremlin is still speaking of a visit still at the preparation phase , but by the Holy See Press Office has officially announced that at 5pm November 25, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, will make his first official visit to Pope Francis. Putin could meet the Pope in Rome in late November , said presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov , commenting on the news releases of Italian media, and confirmed by the Vatican, on the private audience between the two leaders on November 25 , the eve of the inter-government summit between Italy and Russia , scheduled the next day in Trieste .


The possibility of this meeting is being discussed as part of the preparation for the visit of the President to Italy, on 25 and 26 November," Peskov told Interfax . The audience with the Pope according to some media is "strongly desired" by the Russian president , who at the G20 summit in September in St. Petersburg, had explicitly cited the Vatican among states opposed to an external military attack on Syria , which at the time seemed imminent .

A few days beforehand, Pope Francis had written a letter to the head of the Kremlin , who has always supported a diplomatic and political solution to the Syrian crisis, in which he stressed the concern of the Holy See for the possibility of military intervention as loudly demanded by the United States. Peskov said that "it is still too early" to say whether during the meeting at the Vatican will discuss Bergoglio's letter, but certainly there will be the theme of international efforts to end the Syrian conflict and the situation of Christians in Middle East on the table. Issues which currently unite the Holy See and the Patriarchate of Moscow, for its part committed - both economically and diplomatically - to the protection of this minority in the region.

In a recent interview with AsiaNews the same Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate , Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk , chairman of the Department for External Relations described work between the two Churches on the theological level as " unsatisfactory ", while at the same time speaking of "effective" work together " on moral values ​​and social issues " , which also includes the defense of traditional values ​​in Europe and the Christian presence in the Middle East. In fact, Hilarion will visit the Vatican ahead of Putin when, on 12 November , he travels to Rome to present the book "Word of God and the word of man," with contributions by the Russian philologist Serghei Averintsev .

The issue of persecuted Christians is not only central to the foreign policy of the Patriarchate , but also that of the Kremlin, increasingly willing to stand as mediator between East and West, calibrating complaints of violence against Christian minorities, with declarations of friendship and support for Muslim leaders. Last month, about 50 thousand Syrian Christians asked for Russian citizenship, with the fear of "being banished from their lands, for the first time since the birth of Christ." The Kremlin has now said it will seriously consider the request. Putin has already had three meetings with the previous Popes : in March 2007, with Benedict XVII and with John Paul II , in June 2000 and November 2003. In February of 2011, it was instead the then head of the Russian state, Dmitri Medvedev, to pay a visit to Pope Ratzinger in the Vatican, two years after the restoration of full diplomatic relations between the two countries.

 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilarion_%28Alfeyev%29

Hilarion Alfeyev (born Grigoriy Valerievich Alfeyev;^[1] 24 July 1966) is a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. At present he is the Metropolitan of Volokolamsk, the chairman of the Department of External Church Relations and a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow. He is also a noted theologian, church historian and composer and has published books on dogmatic theology, patristics and church history as well as numerous compositions for choir and orchestra.

'Sacred Heart' of the 'Mother of War' Ultramontanism

from the blog 'Good Jesuit, Bad Jesuit'

 

19th Century Jesuits "Fervently Ultramontane, Devoted To The Sacred Heart, Fierce Defenders Of Pope Pius IX And The 1870 Definition Of Papal Infallibility And SuspiciousOf Liberalism In All Its Varieties"

http://goodjesuitbadjesuit.blogspot.com/2013/11/19th-century-jesuits-fervently.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FZlcTj+%28Good+Jesuit%2C+Bad+Jesuit%29

In his introduction to The Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits (2008), editor Thomas Worcester realized he needed to address an imbalance in the volume: fourth-fifths of the essays addressed the history of Jesuits before their suppression in 1773.  “[T]here are relatively few good studies of the Jesuits since 1814 – in any part of the world – at least compared with the abundance of excellent work done on the history of the ‘old’ Society and its ‘corporate’ culture,” Worcester explained. “In general, the Society of Jesus, for much of the century and a half from its restoration until Vatican II, was conservative and even reactionary.” (7-8)

Just one year earlier, John McGreevy, made the point even stronger in America magazine.  Reviewing Gerald McKevitt’s Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848-1919 (Stanford, 2006), McGreevy wrote: 

“19^th-century Jesuits – fervently ultramontane, devoted to the Sacred Heart, fierce defenders of Pope Pius IX and the 1870 definition of papal infallibility and suspicious of liberalism in all its varieties and the public schools that seemed to inculcate it – surely seemed unlikely role models for Jesuits and non-Jesuit scholars in the immediate postconciliar era.”

It might be difficult to identify with men whose worldview was shaped as much by the 1773-1814 suppression as by the European liberal revolutions that forced them into exile (once again) to all corners of the globe a generation later. And yet, to ignore the post-1814 Jesuits is to miss a crucial aspect of Catholic history over the last two centuries. For one thing, the story of the Jesuits in America, is a story of the Restored Society.  All but one of the twenty-eight Jesuit colleges and universities in the United States today – and all of the secondary schools – were founded by Restored Jesuits. But the story of the Restored Jesuits is far broader: they were a globalizing force in the “long nineteenth century,” the age reframed by C.A. Bayly, as The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914 (Blackwell, 2004). 2014 marks the bicentennial year of the lifting of the Suppression.  In commemoration of the Restoration, Loyola University Chicago is hosting a major conference on October 16-19, 2014.  It aims to bring together junior and senior scholars to begin a conversation about the contribution to American identity of both restored Jesuits and the women religious with whom they worked in their enterprises.  The conference aims at locating these initiatives within the specific experiential context of building an American nation. The stories of these men and women provide studies in what Thomas Tweed has termed Crossing and Dwelling (Harvard, 2006): the crossings and dwellings of refugees from European exclusions; transatlantic immigrants; multilingual and transnational identities; settlers in ethnic urban cores; boundary-dwellers in frontier peripheries.  A copy of CFP can be found here, with a February 1, 2014 deadline for proposals.

Link (here) to US Religion

About the WW ONE German Occupation of Eastern Europe

GERMAN Soldiers as perhaps the most Civil of All!

There Once Was A World A 900 Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok
Yaffa Eliach

at p 57

World War I was perhaps the principal catalyst in Eishyshok's transition to modern life.  Though Eishyshok endured its share of suffering in that war as the Russians, Germans, Poles and Lithuanians fought for control of it, and the Jews were made scapegoats with each of the seven shifts in sovereignty that occurred during these years, it in fact fared much better than many other towns - thanks to the Germans.  Most of the war (1915 to 1918) was spent under German rule, and the Germasn proved a relatively benevolent force.  Not only did they assist the kahal in caring for the victims of hunger and typhus, they improved many of the physical conditions in the shtet.  Houses and shutters were painted, wooden sidewalks were constructed, additional trees were planted, new crops such as tomatoes and cultivated strawberries were introduced, and some of the side streets were paved with cobblestones like those lining the main streets and the market square.

at p 223

On the basis in German captivity, most of the World War I veterns had great faith in the German respect for law and order, as did their fellow Eishyshkians, who had spent the better part of two years under a very peaceful occupation.  Thus,when the "new Germans" invaded Eishyshok on June 23, 1941, all efforts at resistance or escape were rejected by the older people.  The former POWS kept reassuring the younger  generation that the 'new Germans' of World War II would prove heirs to the good Germans (gutte Deitschen) of World War I.

But the Plotnik Bible would be a casualty of the "new Germans" of the next war.  Sarah had had her father's wedding present shipped to her after she emigrated to Palestine, but its journey was interrupted by the outbreak of war, and it was returned to Eishyshok.  When these "new Germans" and their Lithuanian collaborators murdered 4,000 people in Eishyshok, their victims included most of the World War I veterans who had so highly praised the civility of their fathers.  

Pope Francis S.J. - At Vatican Celebration For Families

 

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/29/pope-francis-boy--stage-yellow-_n_4175486.html